How is the environmental impact assessment carried out?

Among the most important tasks of the 21st century is the issue of environmental protection. The emergence and support of the ecological crisis contributes to the pollution of irreplaceable natural resources - soil, air and water - by introducing industrial waste, production in agriculture, transport network.

Emissions of industrial scale enterprises and transport systems (for which no environmental impact assessment was performed) into the air, water bodies and soils have reached unacceptable levels today. In a number of regions, for example, in large industrial centers, the degree of pollution significantly exceeds sanitary standards. The primary role in the processes of environmental pollution is played by the activities of the enterprises of the chemical and fuel industries, the metallurgical complex, and electricity.

Let us give an example. The overwhelming majority of modern factories produce toxic wastes of liquid consistency, which can not be satisfactorily cleaned, and as a result, their isolation must be prolonged until their natural decay or decomposition occurs. Such pollutants are placed in storage ponds and in similar structures, it is almost impossible to ensure their complete isolation. As a consequence, such structures automatically become sources of penetration of substances into surface or underground drinking aquifers. Environmental impact assessment is mandatory for the above-mentioned enterprises.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) consists of methods and procedures for taking into account the environmental requirements of the current legislation in the system of preliminary preparation of economic, design and other decisions. They are aimed at preventing and revealing the consequences of their implementation harmful to nature and society in the planes of ecology, social institutions, economy. The environmental impact assessment aims to determine the valuation of investment costs for environmental measures.

The preparation of the EIA must be built on the existing systems of official state standards in the field of nature protection (GOST from 17.1 to 17.8), the norms that determine the quality of the environment, including construction and sanitation.

Environmental impact assessment is a multidisciplinary interdisciplinary work in which knowledge from a number of branches of science is reflected. It is based on facts and information about the state of nature, on the action of the projected object on it. When preparing the EIA, only experienced specialists are invited to perform as executors, who perfectly master the methods in the field of knowledge that they represent. On their account there should be significant operating time and materials for the required region of construction of a pre-planned facility.

The purpose of assessing the impact of objects on the environment is to prevent environmental degradation under the influence of possible economic activities, to ensure the environmental stability of the area where the facility is located, and to create appropriate living conditions for the population. It must precede the planned decision on financial investments in the implementation of the project. In a word, an environmental impact assessment is defined as the applied field of natural science in combination with socio-ecological practice.